Considering the Mechanisms of Vascular Calcification
Harmful calcification of structures in the cardiovascular system proceeds alongside the development of the fatty lesions of atherosclerosis. Both disease processes are accelerated by chronic inflammation, but derive from very different, distinct underlying mechanisms. There is presently little that can be done to reverse calcification effectively; EDTA chelation therapy is the best option on the table at present, but isn't well regarded in the medical community. Other treatments are more focused on slowing the progression of calcification, and can achieve that goal to some degree.
The primary cause of worldwide mo...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 5, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Searching for a Causal Link Between Gut Microbiome Populations and Pace of Aging
In conclusion, this Mendelian randomization study found that Streptococcus was causally associated with Bioage acceleration. Further randomized controlled trials are needed to investigate its role in the aging process.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms12020370 (Source: Fight Aging!)
Source: Fight Aging! - March 5, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
A Genome-Wide Genetic Association Study of Sleep Duration and Longevity
In this study, we firstly studied the genome-wide genetic association between four sleep behaviors (short sleep duration, long sleep duration, insomnia, and sleep chronotype) and lifespan using GWAS summary statistics, and both sleep duration time and insomnia were negatively correlated with lifespan. Then, two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) and multivariable MR analyses were applied to explore the causal effects between sleep behaviors and lifespan.
We found that genetically predicted short sleep duration was causally and negatively associated with lifespan in univariable and multivariable MR analyses, and thi...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 4, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, March 4th 2024
In conclusion, HSV (but not CMV) infection may be indicative of doubled dementia risk.
« Back to Top
Increased Dietary Leucine Activates mTOR Signaling in Macrophages, Accelerating Atherosclerosis
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2024/02/increased-dietary-leucine-activates-mtor-signaling-in-macrophages-accelerating-atherosclerosis/
Leucine is an essential amino acid, only obtained from the diet rather than synthesized by our cells. Leucine supplementation has been proposed as a way to slow the loss of muscle mass with age, as leucine processing becomes dysregulated with aging in a way...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 3, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Patentability – Impacts of Biotechnology following Association for Molecular Pathology v Myriad Genetics and D’Arcy v Myriad Genetics
Theresa-Marie Shaw (University of Queensland), Patentability – Impacts of Biotechnology following Association for Molecular Pathology v Myriad Genetics and D’Arcy v Myriad Genetics (2024): In Association for Molecular Pathology v Myriad Genetics Inc ‘Myriad’ and D’Arcy v Myriad Genetics Inc... (Source: HealthLawProf Blog)
Source: HealthLawProf Blog - March 3, 2024 Category: Medical Law Authors: Katharine Van Tassel Source Type: blogs
Aged Pancreatic Fibroblasts Secrete GDF-15, Encouraging Tumor Growth
Researchers here note one of a broad range of examples in which age-related changes in the state and behavior of non-cancerous cells results in a more hospitable environment for the growth of neighboring cancerous tissue. Cancer is an age-related condition not just because of increased damage to cells in older tissues, nor just because the immune system falters in its surveillance of potentially cancerous cells, but also due to other maladaptive changes that favor the metabolism and growth of some forms of cancerous cells.
A new study provides clues as to why pancreatic cancer is more common and aggressive in olde...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 28, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
When it comes to Lepidoptera, plus ça change
An analysis of the genomes of more than 200 butterfly and moth, Lepidoptera, species reveals that genetic framework of what is ostensibly a very diverse group of insects, has remained remarkably stable since they diverged from their last common ancestor over 250 million years ago.
In a study published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, shed new light on the evolutionary history and genetic structure of the Lepidoptera, which could help in conservation efforts for what is an incredibly important group of pollinators, food source for birds, bats, and other creatures, and a vital part of a healthy ecosystem and env...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - February 28, 2024 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Lepidoptera Source Type: blogs
The Gut Microbiome and Alzheimer's Disease
The balance of microbial populations making up the gut microbiome changes with age, both a loss of microbes generating beneficial metabolites and an increase in the number of inflammatory microbes. Separately from this harmful process, a number of studies have shown that that aged gut microbiome is distinctly different in patients with Alzheimer's disease, suggesting that there may be a meaningful contribution to disease onset and progression arising from the gut. The precise mechanisms involved have yet to be identified. While inflammation has an important role in Alzheimer's disease, the contribution of an Alzheimer's-li...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 27, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Telomere Length as a Target for Therapy
Average telomere length in a tissue is some reflection of (a) stem cell activity and (b) pace of cell division. Telomeres, repeated DNA sequences at the ends of chromosomes, lose some of their length with each cell division, and cells self-destruct or become senescent when telomeres become too short. This limits the ability of somatic cells to replicate, reducing the odds that a given cell will mutate to become cancerous by imposing a limit on cell activity and cell life span, enforcing turnover of cells in tissues. Stem cells, in comparison, are a small, well protected, privileged set of cell populations that use telomera...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 26, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, February 26th 2024
In conclusion, mTORC1 signaling contributes to the ISC fate decision, enabling regional control of intestinal cell differentiation in response to nutrition.
« Back to Top
Reviewing the Development of Senotherapeutics to Treat Aging
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2024/02/reviewing-the-development-of-senotherapeutics-to-treat-aging/
Senescent cells accumulate with age and contribute meaningfully to chronic inflammation and degenerative aging. Destroying these cells produces rapid and sizable reversal of age-related diseases in mice, demonstrating that the presence of senescence cells ...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 25, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
RNA Transfer Between Cells is Tightly Regulated, and Disruption Shortens Life Span
It is not always the case that genetic alterations that shorten life span are interesting: there are many ways to break a complex system, and only some of those breakages are relevant to the dysfunction of aging. Researchers here explore the transfer of RNA between cells in nematode worms, showing that too much RNA uptake causes reduced life span. Is this relevant to aging, however? Most likely only if this set of regulatory processes become changed in maladaptive ways in later life. Otherwise, this is just another one of the countless different ways to break the complex regulatory systems of a living organism.
In...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 23, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Attempting to Determine Harmful versus Adaptive Changes Using Epigenetic Clock Techniques
The largest of the present challenges facing the use of epigenetic clocks to measure biological age is that there is no established causal connection between what the clock measures, meaning the methylation status of specific CpG sites on the genome, and specific aspects of the burden of age-related damage and dysfunction; e.g. which changes are due to chronic inflammation, which due to mitochondrial dysfunction, etc. Thus the results obtained from an epigenetic clock assay, the raw methylation data or the resulting epigenetic age, are not actionable. There is nothing one can do with that information to guide health practi...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 22, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Signaling Between Cell Types is Vital to Heart Regeneration
A fair amount of the research and development work aimed at spurring greater regeneration of an injured heart is focused on cardiomyocytes, either by delivering new cells, or by encouraging existing cells to replicate or otherwise better resist the hostile environment following injury. As researchers here point out, regeneration is known to be an intricate dance between multiple different cell populations. Thus the signaling that facilitates coordination between those cell types may prove to be a better target for intervention than any single cell population, and single cell population approaches that have shown promise in...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 22, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
A Popular Science View of Recent Thinking on DNA Damage as a Cause of Aging
There are presently two views of the way in which stochastic DNA damage can contribute to aging. Most DNA damage occurs in inactive genes in cells that will not replicate many more times, and thus cannot possibly produce systemic consequences throughout large regions of the body. The first argument for a way in which random DNA damage can produce a broader effect is via somatic mosaicism, in which mutational damage occurs in stem cells, allowing those mutations to spread throughout tissue over time. It is unclear as to how to measure the contribution of this process to age-related loss of function, however, and its contrib...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 21, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Circulating Protein Biomarkers Correlate with Future Risk of Dementia
Researchers here demonstrate a predictive biomarker panel for Alzheimer's disease risk based on protein levels assessed in a blood sample. This is a one of a number of similar tests developed in recent years. The question is what one might do given a measurement that suggests high risk of Alzheimer's disease. At present, the only option is to generally improve lifestyle choices, but Alzheimer's is not as correlated with lifestyle factors as is the case for, say, type 2 diabetes. Based on the suggestion that senescent cells are important to neurodegeneration, one might take senolytic drugs intermittently, a few times a year...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 20, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
